


To Fall In Love With a Chaotic Idiot

by ShandyCandy278



Series: Undertale One-Shots [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Accidental kisses, Chaotic Ink, Cuddles, Cuddling, Denial, Fluff, Ink is part time for both sides, Kisses, M/M, Movie Night, Nightmare is King of Denial, Nightmare is done, Poor Ink, Prank War, Pranks, Smug Dream, Tactical Retreat, and Ink is his Queen, dadmare, good fluff, i guess?, poor Nightmare, when I have my computer, will add more tags later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-24 17:54:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22062022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShandyCandy278/pseuds/ShandyCandy278
Summary: Nightmare didn’t like Ink.Well, he didn’t like him at first.
Relationships: Inkmare - Relationship, Vantablack - Relationship, nightink
Series: Undertale One-Shots [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1587931
Comments: 28
Kudos: 232





	To Fall In Love With a Chaotic Idiot

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted on Tumblr but I’m posting it on here.
> 
> Happy New Years, guys!

If you were to ask the majority of the skeletons of the Multiverse who they liked the most out of the most well-known outcodes, you’d probably get a _whole_ lot of ‘Ink’ and ‘Dream’, with ‘Blue’ in third and ‘Error’ in last.

Of course, Nightmare wasn’t tied for last because he had his gang, but he personally didn't care about that.

What he _did_ care about, was _why_ in the _WHOLE WIDE MULTIVERSE_ would _ANYONE_ actually _LIKE_ the _STUPID, CHAOTIC SQUIDBALL!_

Nightmare had had it up to _Ink’s own ego_ with him!

 _Why,_ you might ask?

Because Ink, without fail, had snuck into his castle without rhyme or reason for the last _several months._

Nightmare could forgive a break-in or two, but _73?!_

 _Clearly,_ Ink was finding a way past every single defense Nightmare could conjure up no matter how hard Nightmare tried, and one day Nightmare would figure out how.

But until then, Ink would continue to break in, and he’d rub it in Nightmare’s face like the _smug little radhole he was!_

And things had gotten _worse._

_How?_

Because Killer, Dust, Horror, and Cross had decided that they were all _buddy-buddy_ with Ink now, and after the discovery of Ink’s love for pranks, they had all been in the midst of a _pranking war_ with each other for the past _two months_.

Nightmare ducked down just as a pie was catapulted from across the room at him, Nightmare having purposefully triggered the prank so that he could get rid of it. He then used his tentacle to grab onto Dust’s leg just before he could run away from where he was hiding, hanging him upside down as he drew him in closer.

 _“What_ have I said about _the Pie Pranks?”_ He snarled, displeased as Dust squirmed in his hold. His castle was already a mess, he didn't need to have food stuck in the carpet.

“...” Dust hung defeatedly in shame as he stopped moving. “Not to use them anymore.”

“And _why is that?”_

“Because it’s really hard to clean up, and because it offends Horror.”

 _“Good.”_ He was tempted to drop Dust, but considering that the other was still recovering from a concussion, it would be counterproductive. He tossed the skeleton onto the couch instead. “Where are the others?”

“Last I heard, Horror’s started to make dinner and Ink, Killer, and Cross have the main war in the Gym.” Dust stretched. “I was supposed to catch Ink and Cross by surprise when Killer chased them out, but he hasn’t done that yet.”

Nightmare hummed, glancing towards where the kitchen was and then where the gym was before looking at the wall the pie had landed on. Then he looked back to Dust, unimpressed.

“Your punishment now is to clean up after yourself, help Horror, and do whatever punishment he deems fit for your wasting of his food.” 

“Wha- but Nightmare!”

“No buts.” Nightmare briskly turned around, grumbling as he stalked towards the Gym. “Go.”

Grumbling, Dust did as he was told.

Nightmare could feel a headache coming on as he slowly approached the Gym, but he doubted that today could get any wo-

_CRASH!_

Nightmare’s eye twitched.

“I should not have thought that.” He growled to himself, picking up his speed as he rushed towards where the crash was. “I should _not_ have thought that, I _should not_ have _thought that-“_ He barely dodged an array of bones and knives that were thrown down the hall as both Killer and Cross ran out of the gym with arrows of light at their backs. _“I should not have thought that!”_

Both Killer and Cross grunted when they ran into him, and when they saw who they ran into they paled.

“Uhh, Hi boss.” Killer said when all Nightmare did was glare at them. “We were just, Uh-“

“Making a tactical retreat!”

“Yes.” Killer nodded. “Tactical retreat.”

“That didn’t look like a tactical retreat.” Nightmare’s glare grew further. “And that doesn’t explain how my brother got here.”

“And Blue.” Cross piped up as the fighting continued in the Gym. Nightmare pushed them all into the wall when a Gaster Blaster was fired, and he did a mental count off in his head.

Killer and Cross were the only ones in his gang who had been in the Gym- Dust had said so himself, so the only person who could have fought Dream and Blue was…

Nightmare almost didn’t believe it when black paint was tossed out the door too.

“Oh no you don’t.” He said, reaching his tentacles out and grabbing Killer and Cross before they could sneak off. “Dream somehow broke in, and I’m _not_ letting you two abandon a battle.”

“Ink looked pissed though.” Killer grumbled. Nightmare’s eye flared.

“Are you saying that you’re running away because you’re scared of Ink being mad?”

“No, boss-!”

“We were running so that we could come up with a plan!” Cross hastily explained. “And so that we could get back up and tell you! The second Dream and Blue burst in and attacked, Ink started fighting them!”

“...” Nightmare slowly looked between the open doors of the Gym and the two currently in his hold, contemplating his choices. Then he placed them on the ground and pushed them towards the battle. “Come on. Let’s see what’s going on here.”

Eager to stay on his good side for the time being, Kilker and Cross were more than happy to lead the way through the chaos and into the Gym.

Nightmare almost couldn’t believe his eye.

Ink was, indeed, fighting off both Dream and Blue. He also looked really, really mad.

“Well then.” He looked to the two in front of him, who were just… standing there. Watching. He couldn’t exactly blame them, it was a mesmerizing sight, but at the same time…

He pushed Killer and Cross forward.

“What are you waiting for?” He asked, making both of them flinch. “Go. Fight.”

Without complaint, both of them rushed into battle. Nightmare himself took in the sight for just a little longer before joining in, and he reluctantly admitted something to himself.

Maybe, just maybe, Ink wasn’t all that bad.

* * *

The battle didn’t last all that long, but in all honesty Ink didn’t care about that.

With a forceful push to the ink holding his friends captive, he pushed them through a portal and followed them into the Doodle Sphere. 

“Ink, what the heck?!” Dream exclaimed the moment they were released, wobbling a little as he stood up. Apparently being carried by ink did that to people, Ink couldn’t see why, but oh well.

“What?” 

“You fought with them!” Dream threw his arms into the air. “I thought you were on our side!”

“I am.” A beat. “But I’m also on theirs.”

“Ink-“

“Look, Dream-“ Ink took a step forward. “I still care about the Multiverse and stuff, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t make friends! And I made friends! With the gang!” He laughed at Dream’s stunned silence. “We’ve been having a prank war for the last two months, and I think I’m finally getting through to Nightmare!” He leaned forward a little, a wide and smug grin on his face. “Don’t you think it would be cool if someone you were friends with also was friends with Nightmare?”

“...” Dream slowly took a deep breath as Blue finally decided that it was safe to stand.

“When did this start?” He asked.

“Oh! About a year ago!” Ink’s smile grew wider. “I think Cross unintentionally dared me to break into Nightmare’s hideout or something, so I did! And I kinda just kept on doing it, and I learned a lot of stuff about them. Then I got bored so I started pranking them and it turned into a war! Cross and I only recently partnered up because I promised him chocolate if he helped me unleash the ultimate prank, but then Killer and Dust caught onto our plan and teamed up to try and stop us!”

“And how does Nightmare feel about this?” Dream asked, and Ink found it amusing that he looked like he was done with everything.

“Well, he doesn’t like it.” Ink shrugged. “But I’m sure I’ll get to him eventually!”

“Well, since this is a thing now, and since Nightmare could use some friends,” Dream waved his hand in an ‘I’m helpless to do anything about this’ gesture, which made Ink’s smile grow wider. “Go ahead. Just make sure that Nightmare knows that you’re gonna be fighting for whatever side you feel like, okay?”

“Okay!”

So the first thing he did was teleport back to the castle and chase down Nightmare.

And for once, he wasn’t greeted with a glare, his, screech, yell- or anything, really, except for a suspicious narrowed cyan eyelight that was watching him cautiously.

“You fought your friends.”

“Well, I fight you guys on a semi-daily basis, so I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“... You see us as friends?”

“Well _duh,_ ” Ink rolled his eye lights. “Why else would I keep on coming over to hang out?” Nightmare just stared incredulously at him in response, so Ink continued. “Basically, I’ll fight with whoever it is I’m hanging out with that day, so I’m not going to keep on taking sides or anything. If I’m hanging out with you when it happens, I'll fight with you. If I’m hanging out with them, I’ll fight with them.”

“... Alright.” Then he turned around, prepared to walk back to his office. He paused, just for a moment. “Next time, just walk through the door. It’ll open now for you.” And then, he disappeared into the shadows and zoomed away.

“Sweet! I should write all of this down…”

* * *

It had been several months since Ink talked to Nightmare about the whole deal, and Nightmare _still_ didn’t know how he felt about Ink. He was a Chaotic Good at best and a Chaotic Evil at worst, which really did make him a Chaotic Neutral the rest of the time. 

His gang absolutely _loved_ it, though.

They especially liked it when Ink would go with them every once in a while for a Supply Raid, and the inhabitants of the AU would be utterly confused about why _Ink_ was apart of it of all people, when literally just a week or two ago they had visited the same AU fighting against each other.

Nightmare was pretty sure Ink’s popularity votes were starting to put him in second place behind Dream.

Regardless, that didn’t mean that he could just ignore the weird feeling that he’d get when Ink was around. 

He actually knew what exactly these weird feelings, but he refused to actually think or say them out loud. It would pass eventually, he just had to wait for it to disappear.

It didn’t help that Dream was onto him. Almost every single time Ink came over, he’d ask about why Dream felt weird and strange emotions coming from Nightmare, as well as how worried Dream was about him. Nightmare always just brushed the questions off, because he himself knew that he was in denial of such things existing, and then distracted Ink with something that was more entertaining than trying to question Nightmare. 

It worked every single time, and he could feel Dream’s frustration start to grow because of it. 

That was the only amusing thing about this.

Sighing, Nightmare slumped into the couch in the ‘living room’ of the castle and turned on the TV, switching it to a random channel in an attempt to distract himself from his thoughts.

_Spoiler Alert- it didn’t work._

Instead, his thoughts decided to circle back to Ink. As they had been ever since Ink had decided that he had wanted to get closer to Nightmare after the decision that Ink was on both sides.

He hadn’t known that Ink’s sense of humor could get dark, after all. Especially the dark that had him genuinely laughing, which not many people could actually accomplish.

Regardless, he was ready to continue to deny himself the truth while watching a silly Mettaton Show. Because that’s what he was going to do. That’s what he was doing. He most certainly wasn’t thinking about Ink. Nope! Not at all!

He was so lost in thought that he didn’t notice the said smug squidball until he had plopped himself in Nightmare’s lap.

“What are we watching?” He asked casually, ignoring how he was suddenly jostled when Nightmare startled. Nightmare gave the Guardian a dirty glare that even his boys would cower under.

“A Stupid MTT Show.” He answered, his glare increasing when Ink proceeded to make himself comfortable against the goopy skeleton. Was he trying to make Nightmare’s denial harder?! “Why are you here?”

“I wanted to come.” He shrugged, glancing behind them. Nightmare’s suspicions soared through the roof at that, Ink was terrible at being subtle after all, and was more than ready to turn around and see what was going on when a new, familiar voice popped up from behind the couch.

“Yup! It’s definitely because of you, Ink!”

The sound that indignantly left Nightmare’s mouth most certainly did not sound like a pathetic child screaming bloody murder.

He leapt off of the couch, throwing Ink off of him as one of his tentacles caught Dream’s arm before he could run away, holding him up high in the air.

“What the funk, Dream?!” He exclaimed. “Why are you here?!”

“Ink invited me.” His brother shrugged, but there was a knowing glint in his eyes that made Nightmare want to throw him into the wall across the room. “We both grew tired of you denying these feelings of yours, Night- although, it’s interesting to feel them when we’re not fighting and up close.”

“What are they, anyway?” Ink asked, getting off of the couch to walk over to Nightmare. He had a stupid grin on his face all the while, and while Nightmare wanted to strangle him for it, he also wanted to do… other things.

He was only faintly aware of the heat on his cheeks when Ink leaned into his personal space, his smirk growing wider.

“Awww, don’t tell me that they’re those kinds of feelings!” He cooed. “You know, the feelings of-“

 _“Don’t say it out loud!”_ He hissed, curling in on himself a little. Ink considered him for a moment, Creator-knew what going through his mind, before the grin grew the widest he had ever seen it just before Ink threw himself onto Nightmare.

“Aww, don’t worry!” He exclaimed, smiling bright. “You’re still one of my best friends anyway!”

“I…” Nightmare floundered for a moment, for once lost for words as his cheeks grew hotter. Eventually he growled, shoving Ink off and into Dream, making them both fall on top of each other and onto the floor. “Just get him out of here!”

He then turned around and stomped off without a word, internally screaming at himself.

He should have known that that wouldn’t have been the end of it.

* * *

Ink stared after Nightmare as he got up, Dream wheezing behind him while trying (and failing) to stifle his laughter.

… _huh._

That was interesting- he had never seen Nightmare react in such a way. To anyone.

Yet Ink could pull that kind of a reaction out.

Slowly, as he continued to stare after Nightmare, Dream’s laughter slowed.

“Ink?” He asked.

“Yeah?”

“Why is The Look on your face?”

“What look?”

“You know, _The Look._ ”

“Oh. That.” He smiled. “I wonder how far I can push this.”

“Ink.” Ink’s smile grew wider. “Ink, no.”

“Ink _yes.”_

* * *

Ever since that day, Ink had started to act weird around Nightmare.

Well, Ink was Chaotic, so there wasn’t exactly any kind of behavior that could be considered weird for him. It would be a better discriptor for Nightmare to simply say that Ink had picked up a new habit of flirting with him, as well as a few other things.

Nightmare didn’t want to know if he was serious about it or not (and he couldn’t anyway- Ink not having a soul and all), but he usually treated the behavior the same way he treated all of the ridiculousness his gang brought him.

Except for the fact that he’d internally scream the entire time.

It didn’t help that Killer, Dust, Horror, and Cross has all managed to catch on to what was going on. They had set up a lot of elaborate pranks for both of them in an attempt to get them together, but Nightmare usually snuffed those pranks out before they could do any damage- and the few that he hadn’t, other people became the victims of it.

It didn’t matter what his gang did though- Nightmare and Ink grew closer anyway. It was common now to catch Ink draping himself over Nightmare or cuddling into him at whatever chance he could, and sometimes Nightmare would actually return the actions. Ink especially seemed to like kissing Nightmare’s cheeks because it felt weird, but Nightmare wasn’t complaining.

He was just… processing it.

And that was actually the truth, not some lie he told himself in an attempt to deny what he felt. He was processing everything, cause never in the whole 500+ years of his existence had he ever expected to actually do like this with someone. He had never really dreamt or thought about it, even before the Apple Incident.

So he was still processing everything when Ink decided that he wanted to sit on Nightmare’s lap during a late-night movie.

He was still processing when he wrapped his arms around Ink and pulled him a little closer, moving so that Ink could lay his head on his shoulder.

He was still processing when Ink cuddled him back, his multicolored eye lights still locked on the movie as he made himself comfortable.

He was still processing when Ink decided that he wanted to kiss Nightmare’s cheek again.

He was still processing when he turned to look at Horror when he made a comment about the said movie.

He was still processing when Ink’s teeth landed upon his own, for the briefest of moments.

He was still processing when Ink turned around to continue watching the movie.

He was still processing when all of the processing suddenly came to a halt a minute later, recognition of what just happened setting his face aflame. His eyelight shrunk to the smallest of pinpricks just as he felt Ink stiffen in his arms, probably realizing the same thing Nightmare had.

And he was _done_ processing when they both didn’t do anything about it, wordlessly agreeing that it would never be spoken of again.

* * *

“Good bye!” Ink said happily, giving Nightmare a _biiiig_ hug before rushing off, teleporting to the Doodle Sphere. His chest was light for some odd reason that he couldn’t explain as he skipped inside, greeting Dream with a simple hello.

“Hello, Ink.” Dream replied with a chuckle, lifting a cup of what looked like tea to his mouth. “How was the Gang? Nightmare?”

“It was loads of fun!” He exclaimed, waving his arm around. “Horror showed me a new recipe, and Dust and Killer sparred with each other. Cross has been working on a new project too, and it was fun to watch him! And Nightmare’s been a lot more relaxed lately- I don’t know why, but he’s been getting… how would you describe it…” Ink snapped his fingers a few times, but when he saw the look on Dream’s face, he stopped. “... What’s that look for?”

Dream’s knowing smirk grew. “You know-“

“No, stop-“

“With how you keep on talking-“

“I’ve changed my mind-“

“It _really does_ sound like-“

 _“_ Dream, we’ve already talked about this- _“_

“You~ like~ him~!” The second Dream finished speaking Ink groaned, giving him the most done look he could. 

“No, I don’t.”

“Ink, you literally have all the symptoms, you can’t fool me.”

“I can and I will. Watch me.”

“That insinuates that you _do_ , actually, have feelings for him.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do.”

He was starting to regret leaving the castle.

“No, I don’t- _AND-_ “ He hastily added on before Dream could speak up. “We’re going to be late! For the weekly check up! If we don’t leave soon!”

“Ink, we aren’t doing the check up today-“

“Well I’m doing the check up anyway!” He armed himself with his precious paintbrush, ignoring the light heat on his cheeks. “Come on, Broomy! We have work to do!”

“No you don’t!” Dream yelled after him.

“Yes I do!” And he left before Dream could say otherwise.

Because Dream was being silly. He was being ridiculous too- Ink didn’t have feelings for Nightmare. The kiss was an accident, it didn’t mean anything.

…

…

…

Right?

A few days later, when he decided to do it on purpose, he reluctantly admitted to Dream that he _might_ be right.

_(He was smug for the next three months.)_

* * *

  
They were cuddling on his bed when it hit him.

“Hey, Ink?”

“Yeah?” Ink looked up at him and away from the tentacle he was playing with. It reminded Nightmare of all the times they had hung out together, had fun together, had caused chaos together- and it warmed his soul just the tiniest bit.

“Ink.” He paused to gather his thoughts. “Ink, we’re dating.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“... hOLY SHI-“

Downstairs, Killer, Horror, Dust, Cross, and Dream all simultaneously started laughing.

Cause they totally hadn’t been spying on them the entire time.

Nope.

Not at all.


End file.
